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LibreOffice
LibreOffice is a , a project of . It was from in 2010, which was an open-sourced version of the earlier . The LibreOffice suite comprises programs for word processing, the creation and editing of spreadsheets, slideshows, diagrams and drawings, working with , and composing mathematical formulae. It is available in 115 languages. LibreOffice uses the international / standard file format (ODF) as its native format to save documents for all of its applications. LibreOffice also supports the file formats of most other major office suites, including , through a variety of import/export filters. LibreOffice is available for a variety of s, including , , and (including a LibreOffice Viewer for ), as well as in the form of an . It is the default office suite of most popular s. It is the most actively developed free and open-source office suite, with approximately 50 times the development activity of , the other major descendant of OpenOffice.org. The project was announced and a beta released on 28 September 2010. Between January 2011 (the first stable release) and October 2011, LibreOffice was downloaded approximately 7.5 million times. The project claims 120 million unique downloading addresses from May 2011 to May 2015, excluding Linux distributions, with 55 million of those being from May 2014 to May 2015. Features Included applications Operating systems The Document Foundation developers target LibreOffice for Microsoft Windows (IA-32 and x86-64), Linux (IA-32, x86-64 and ) and macOS (x86-64). Community ports for , , and receive support from contributors to those projects, respectively. LibreOffice is also installable on via SFE. Historically predecessors of LibreOffice, back to 3, have run on with CPUs that made (and Oracle continued making for a while). Unofficial ports of LibreOffice, versions now obsolete, have supported SPARC. Current unofficial ports of LibreOffice 5.2.5 run only on Intel-compatible hardware, up to for Solaris 11. In 2011, developers announced plans to port LibreOffice both to and to . A beta version of a document viewer for Android 4.0 or newer was released in January 2015; In May 2015, LibreOffice Viewer for Android was released with basic editing capabilities. The LibreOffice application for various mobile operating systems allows for remote control of LibreOffice Impress presentations. LibreOffice Online LibreOffice Online is the edition of LibreOffice. It allows for the use of LibreOffice through a web browser by using the of . Development was announced at the first LibreOffice Conference in October 2011, and is ongoing. The Document Foundation, , and announced a collaboration to work on its implementation. A version of the software was shown in a September 2015 conference, and the UK announced an interest in using the software. On 15 December 2015, Collabora, in partnership with ownCloud, released a technical preview of Libreoffice Online branded as Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE). In July 2016, and Collabora partnered to bring CODE to Nextcloud users. By October 2016, Collabora had released nine updates to CODE. The first source code release of LibreOffice Online was done with LibreOffice version 5.3 in February 2017. Unique features of LibreOffice A detailed 60-page report in June 2015 compared the progress of the LibreOffice project with the related project Apache OpenOffice. It showed that "OpenOffice received about 10% of the improvements LibreOffice did in the period of time studied." Supported file formats Miscellaneous features LibreOffice can use the multimedia framework in Linux to render multimedia content such as videos in Impress and other programs. Visually, LibreOffice used the large " style" icons that are used for the application shortcuts, quick launch icons, icons for associated files and for the icons found on the toolbar of the LibreOffice programs in the past. They were also used on the toolbars and menus by default. Later LibreOffice integrated multiple icon themes to adapt the look and feel of specific desktop environment, such as Colibre for Windows, and Elementary for GNOME. LibreOffice also ships with a modified theme which looks native on GTK-based Linux distributions. It also renders fonts via on Linux distributions; this means that text in LibreOffice is rendered the same as the rest of the Linux desktop. With version 6.2, LibreOffice includes a -style GUI, called Notebookbar, including three different views. This feature has previously been included as an experimental feature in LibreOffice 6 (experimental features must be enabled from LibreOffice settings in order to make the option available in the View menu). LibreOffice has a feature similar to called Fontwork. Licensing The LibreOffice project uses a dual v3 (or later) / MPL 2.0 license for new contributions to allow the license to be upgraded. Since the core of the OpenOffice.org codebase was donated to the , there is an ongoing effort to get all the code rebased to ease future license updates. At the same time, there were complaints that had not in fact released the code as open source, despite having claimed to. It was reported that some LibreOffice developers wanted to incorporate some code parts and bug fixes which IBM already fixed in their OpenOffice fork. Scripting and extensions LibreOffice supports third-party extensions. , the LibreOffice Extension Repository lists more than 320 extensions. Another list is maintained by the and another one by the . Extensions and scripts for LibreOffice can be written in C++, Java, , Python, and . for the latter two are bundled with most LibreOffice installers, so no additional installation is needed. The for LibreOffice is called " " and is extensively documented. LibreOffice Basic is a similar to Microsoft (VBA) but based on . It is available in Writer, Calc and Base. It is used to write small programs known as "macros", with each macro performing a different task, such as counting the words in a paragraph. History ooo-build, Go-oo and Oracle Members of the OpenOffice.org community who were not employees had wanted a more egalitarian form for the OpenOffice.org project for many years; Sun had stated in the original OpenOffice.org announcement in 2000 that the project would eventually be run by a neutral foundation and put forward a more detailed proposal in 2001. and then had maintained the ooo-build set, a project led by , to make the build easier on and due to the difficulty of getting contributions accepted upstream by Sun, even from corporate partners. It tracked the main line of development and was not intended to constitute a fork. It was also the standard build mechanism for OpenOffice.org in most s and was contributed to by said distributions. In 2007, ooo-build was made available by Novell as a software package called (ooo-build had used the go-oo.org as early as 2005), which included many features not included in upstream OpenOffice.org. Go-oo also encouraged outside contributions, with rules similar to those later adopted for LibreOffice. Sun's contributions to OpenOffice.org had been declining for some time, they remained reluctant to accept contributions and contributors were upset at Sun releasing OpenOffice.org code to IBM for under a proprietary contract, rather than under an open source licence. Sun was purchased by in early 2010. OpenOffice.org community members were concerned by Oracle's behaviour towards open source software, the and Oracle's withdrawal of developers and lack of activity on or visible commitment to OpenOffice.org, as had been noted by industry observers – as Meeks put it in early September 2010, "The news from the Oracle OpenOffice conference was that there was no news." Discussion of a fork started soon after. The Document Foundation and LibreOffice On 28 September 2010, was announced as the host of LibreOffice, a new derivative of OpenOffice.org. The Document Foundation's initial announcement stated their concerns that Oracle would either discontinue OpenOffice.org, or place restrictions on it as an open source project, as it had on Sun's . LibreOffice 3.3 beta used the ooo-build build infrastructure and the OpenOffice.org 3.3 beta code from Oracle, then adding selected patches from Go-oo. Go-oo was discontinued in favour of LibreOffice. Since the office suite that was branded "OpenOffice.org" in most Linux distributions was in fact Go-oo, most moved immediately to LibreOffice. Oracle was invited to become a member of The Document Foundation. However, Oracle demanded that all members of the OpenOffice.org Community Council involved with The Document Foundation step down from the OOo Community Council, claiming a conflict of interest. Naming The name "LibreOffice" was picked after researching trademark databases and social media, as well as after checks were made to see if it could be used for s in various countries. Oracle rejected requests to donate the OpenOffice.org brand to the project. LibreOffice was initially named BrOffice in Brazil. OpenOffice.org had been distributed as BrOffice.org by the BrOffice Centre of Excellence for Free Software because of a trademark issue. End of OpenOffice.org and beginning of Apache OpenOffice Oracle announced in April 2011 that it was ending its development of OpenOffice.org and would lay off the majority of its paid developers. In June 2011, Oracle announced that it would donate the OpenOffice.org code and trademark to the , where the project was accepted for a project incubation process within the foundation, thus becoming . In an interview with LWN in 2011, Ubuntu founder blamed The Document Foundation for destroying OpenOffice.org because it did not license code under Oracle's . But former Sun executive denies this is the case: In March 2015, an comparison of LibreOffice with its cousin project Apache OpenOffice concluded that "LibreOffice has won the battle for developer participation". Release history Versions Since March 2014 and version 4.2.2, two different major "released" versions of LibreOffice are available at any time, in addition to development versions (numbered release candidates and dated nightly builds). The versions are designated to signal their appropriateness for differing user requirements. Releases are designated by three numbers separated by dots. The first two numbers represent the major version (branch) number, and the final number indicates the bugfix releases made in that series. LibreOffice designates the two release versions as: * "Fresh" – the most recent major version (branch), which contains the latest enhancements but which may have introduced not present in the "still" release. * "Still" (formerly "Stable") – the previous major version, which, by the time it has become the "still" version, has had around six months of bug fixing. It is recommended for users for whom stability is more important than the latest enhancements. Release schedule LibreOffice uses a for predictability, rather than a "when it's ready" schedule. New major versions are released around every six months, in January or February and July or August of each year. The initial intention was to release in March and September, to align with the schedule of other free software projects. Minor bugfix versions of the "fresh" and "still" release branches are released frequently. Users and deployments The figure shows the wordwide number of LibreOffice users from 2011 to 2018 in millions. References are in the text. 2011: estimated in September 2011, that there were 10 million users worldwide who had obtained LibreOffice via s or s. Over 90% of those were on Windows, with another 5% on . LibreOffice is the default office suite for most s, and is installed when the is installed or updated. Based on reckonings for new or updated Linux installations in 2011, The Document Foundation estimated a subtotal of 15 million Linux users. This gave a total estimated user base of 25 million users in 2011. In 2011, the Document Foundation set a target of 200 million users worldwide before the end of 2020. 2013: In September 2013, after two years, the estimated number of LibreOffice users was 75 million. A million new unique IP addresses check for downloads each week. 2015: In 2015, LibreOffice was used by 100 million users and 18 governments. 2016: In August 2016, the number of LibreOffice users was estimated at 120 million. 2018: The Document Foundation estimated in 2018 that there are 200 million active LibreOffice users worldwide. About 25% of them are students and 10% Linux users (who automatically receive LibreOffice through their distribution). In comparison, Microsoft Office was used in 2018 by 1.2 billion users. Mass deployments LibreOffice has seen various mass deployments since its inception: 2003–2010 * In 2003–2004, the Brazilian corporation started migrating its software to BrOffice (the local version of LibreOffice at the time), with estimated value of 3.5 million (approximately US$1.2 million at the time), and became a for similar initiatives in Brazil, particularly in . * In 2005, the French Gendarmerie announced its migration to OpenOffice.org. It planned to migrate 72,000 desktop machines to a customised version of Ubuntu with LibreOffice by 2015. * In 2010, the Irish city of gradually started migrating to open-source solutions to free itself from and improve its purchase negotiation power. One of the key aspects of this move has been the use of LibreOffice. 2011 * The administrative authority of the region (which includes the city of Paris) included LibreOffice in a given to students which contains free open-source software. The USB flash drive is given to approximately 800,000 students. * It was announced that thirteen hospitals of the region would gradually switch to LibreOffice, affecting "almost all of the 25,000 workers". 2012 * The Greek city of migrated its PCs to use LibreOffice. The local estimated cost savings to be at least €70,000. * In July, the Spanish city of switched its 1,200 PCs to using LibreOffice, citing cost savings of €400,000. * The administration of , Italy, started a project to migrate an initial group of 5,000 civil workers to LibreOffice. * The city of , US has been a long-time user of open-source software using Linux thin clients. Originally using OpenOffice.org, the city of Largo switched to LibreOffice in 2013. 2013 * In June, the government of the Italian province of will be switching 7,000 PCs in administration and "many more thousands" of PCs in health services using LibreOffice and ODF. * In August, the administration of the Spanish autonomous has completed the migration of all 120,000 PCs of the administration, including schools and courts, to LibreOffice. * The German city of announced that it would transition from OpenOffice to LibreOffice in the near future. This is in line with Munich's long term commitment to using open-source software. Munich uses , an Linux derivative, on nearly all of the city's 15,000 computers. The city of Munich is the second public administration to join the advisory board at the Document Foundation. News appeared in 2014 that the Council is considering migrating back to Microsoft Windows & Microsoft Office but was later denied. Based on a study, the mayor of Munich, , initiated the re-investigation of the scenario of migrating back to Microsoft systems. The trustworthiness of the study is questionable because the company has been "Microsoft's Alliance Partner of the Year" for nine years. Further details were issued by the Document Foundation. 2014 * The French city of announced it saved €1 million by migrating thousands of workstations to LibreOffice. 2015 * The Italian Ministry of Defence announced that it would install LibreOffice on 150,000 PCs. * The Italian city of replaced Microsoft Office with LibreOffice on its 1,700 PCs. * LibreOffice was officially made available for all UK Government agencies nationwide. Annual cost saving on a subscription for 6,500 users compared to MS Office is approximately 900,000 GBP. * In July 2015, the IT project manager working for the administration of Nantes (France's sixth largest city) talked about the ongoing switch of its 5,000 workstations to LibreOffice started in 2013. According to the IT project manager, the switch to LibreOffice allowed the administration to save €1.7 million. * As of 2015, LibreOffice is installed on almost all of the 500,000 workstations of the 11 French ministries members of the MIMO working group. The MIMO working group was the first public administration to join the advisory board at the Document Foundation. 2016 * The Taiwanese would purchase no more Microsoft Office licenses and turned to ODF and LibreOffice. * The switched all of its PCs (more than 15,000) to LibreOffice. * Lithuanian police switched to LibreOffice on over 8,000 workstations, citing cost savings of €1 million. 2017 * The majority (75%) of municipalities in the of Belgium use open source software and services which include LibreOffice. As of March 2017, over 20,000 public administration staff and many times more citizens use the services. * The Spanish autonomous region of announced plans to finalize its switch to LibreOffice at several central government services and ministries, making LibreOffice the only office productivity suite on 6,000 workstations. * The city of , Italy, began installing LibreOffice on all of its 14,000 PC workstations, in parallel to the existing proprietary office suite. It is one of the planned steps to increase the city's use of free and open-source software, aiming to reduce lock-in to IT vendors. 2018 * The city of , Turkey, is migrating all of its PC workstations – around 2,000 – to and LibreOffice. * The city of , Albania, is about to complete the implementation of the LibreOffice on all of the city's 1,000 PC workstations. Conferences Starting in 2011, has organized the annual LibreOffice Conference, as follows: * 2011 – , France – 12–15 October * 2012 – , Germany – 17–19 October * 2013 – , Italy – 24–27 September * 2014 – , Switzerland – 3–5 September * 2015 – , Denmark – 23–25 September * 2016 – , Czech Republic – 7–9 September * 2017 – , Italy – 11–13 October * 2018 – , Albania – 26–28 September * 2019 – , Spain – 11–13 September Derivatives * supplies branded and customised LibreOffice versions LibreOffice Vanilla for Mac, GovOffice, Collabora Office, Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE) and Collabora Online. *EuroOffice is a derivative of LibreOffice with free and non-free extensions developed by Hungarian-based MultiRacio Ltd. *"LibreOffice powered by CIB" is a branded and customized version of LibreOffice developed by Germany-based CIB software GmbH. *"NDC ODF Application Tools" is a derivative of LibreOffice provided by the and used by public agencies in Taiwan. * 2017 and later versions are based on LibreOffice. Previous versions included stability fixes from LibreOffice. *OxOffice is a derivative of LibreOffice (originally a derivative of OpenOffice.org) with enhanced support for the . References Category:Writing